A San Diego man has been charged with committing passport fraud by allegedly using false information and stolen identities, including the stolen names of deceased children.
The office of U.S. Attorney Laura E. Duffy announced Thursday that Lloyd Taylor, 69, was arraigned in federal court on three counts of making false statements on passport applications.
According to court documents, Taylor made various false statements on each passport application, including his real name, place of birth, date of birth, Social Security Number and applicant’s signature, among other phony details.
Investigators say this false information was obtained from more than half a dozen identities Taylor stole from other people, including children who died in the early 1950s.
Prosecutors say Taylor had traveled extensively on the fraudulent passports.
In addition to the alleged passport fraud, prosecutors say Taylor allegedly kept bank accounts in the names of purported religious churches, listing either himself or one of his stolen aliases as the signatory on the accounts. Prosecutors also said the government had recently seized $1.8 million in gold from Taylor.
On Thursday, a judge concluded that Taylor was a flight risk and ordered he be detained without bond.
Taylor is scheduled to appear in court again on May 20 for motion hearing. He faces a maximum of 10 years in prison, per count, and a $250,000 fine if convicted of the charges.
Officials say the investigation into Taylor’s fraudulent activities was a multi-agency effort led by the San Diego Regional Fraud Task Force comprised of investigators from the U.S. Secret Service, the San Diego Police Department, the San Diego District Attorney’s Office, the IRS and the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Diplomatic Security.
Gregory Meyer, Special Agent in Charge of the United States Secret Service in San Diego, said Taylor’s indictment should serve as a swift warning about identity theft crimes.
“Identity theft is a serious crime, whether committed electronically or by deliberately provided false information,” said Meyer.
“As today’s indictment makes clear, stolen identity information can be misused in a variety of ways, including to do things like obtain fraudulent passports, which is a matter of national security,” added Duffy.
Photo Credit: NBC 7 San Diego